The present invention relates generally to apparatus for winding continuous-length sheet material, such as textile fabrics, onto a supporting core and, more particularly, to winding apparatus of the type commonly referred to as batchers adapted for cutting the sheet material widthwise once a desired quantity of the sheet material has been wound on the core, whereupon the fully-wound core is removed and the winding process is continued with a replacement core.
A batcher-type winding apparatus of the aforementioned type which has been well received commercially is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,396. In such apparatus, a tubular core is supported by an internal mandrel in peripheral frictional engagement with a driving roller for driven rotation of the core to progressively wind thereabout a traveling sheet of textile fabric or other sheet material fed to the nip between the core and the driving roller. A second driving roller is provided at a lateral spacing from the first-mentioned driving roller and is similarly operable for peripheral driving of the core. The core-supporting mandrel is mounted on an extensible piston of a piston-and-cylinder assembly for displacement of the core and the sheet material wound thereabout from driven contact with the first roller into driver contact with the second roller once the windings of the sheet material about the core have been built to a predetermined diameter, following which the winding operation is continued under the driving operation of the second driving roller. When the core is displaced into driven contact with the second driving roller, the sheet of material is trained to travel through a shear-cutting assembly disposed intermediate the first and second driving rollers. The shear-cutting assembly includes a first cutting blade stationarily mounted to contact one face of the traveling sheet material and a second cutting blade mounted at the free end of a rotatable arm movable through a cutting arc at the opposite face of the fabric into and out of cutting engagement with the first blade to shear-cut the material transversely across its width. This shear-cutting operation advantageously achieves a substantially straight cut without risk of ripping or tearing the sheet material and without requiring a stoppage or slowing of the traveling movement of the sheet material and further is capable of reliably cutting a wide variety of sheet materials many of which may be difficult to sever by other cutting means.
The commercial embodiment of the batcher-type winding apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,396 has changed over the years since issuance of such patent. In the current commercial embodiment of this apparatus, a single core-winding station is provided whereat a pair of driving rollers are arranged in relatively closely spaced axially parallel relation for receiving the mandrel-mounted core between the driving rollers in peripheral contact with each thereof. In addition, the rotatable cutter arm on which the movable cutting blade is supported is of an L-shaped configuration to extend in a cantilevered fashion from its rotational axis to allow winding build-up on the core to the fullest desired wound diameter without need to displace the core from a first winding station to a second laterally spaced winding station. The pivoting cutter arm is further designed to engage the wound core during cutting rotation in advance of cutting engagement between the cutting blades to discharge the wound core from the driving rollers and position the trailing length of unwound fabric on the stationary cutting blade in preparation for the subsequent cutting operation.